Sea Monsters

Lee Berman · 29 May 2011, 23:13 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 29 May 2011 19:13:11 -0400
Subject: (urth) Sea Monsters
Message-ID: <SNT123-w2349FE8950ABE73699F86FCF780 at phx.gbl>

Andrew Mason: "..Great Erebus, who has established his kingdom there, will 
soon be driven before them, with all his fierce, pale warriors. He will unite 
his strength with Abaia's, whos kingdom is in the warm waters..."

Thanks Andrew. I've always thought that was a key passage. I find it graphically
illustrated by Maxellindis' uncle's story about the ship on Gyoll with voices
coming from the water and the bottom roiled carrying giant pandours which seem to
be a good semblance of "cold, pale warriors". In other words, the scene describes
a partnership between Abaia and Erebus. That's why I recently asked James about his 
contention that Erebus is long dead. Personally, I suspect WOlfe intends these 
creatures, like their mythological analogs, to be essentially immortal. Like all
(false?) gods, their power and survival depend the number (and fervency) of their 
followers.

>Daniel Peterson: I feel Wolfe is engaging with that kind of cosmic horror in the 
>background of the whole BotNS (in fact, I'm sad to find it pretty much missing in 
>the rest of the Solar Cycle - but perhaps the vampiric Inhumi make up for that).

I tend to disagree. Not that the Inhumi aren't a horror element. But I think the gods
of the Whorl add an electronic ghostian version of the sea monsters in Long Sun (while
the giant fish in Scylla's lake is closer to a real version of them). 

But most especially in Short Sun, I find that trilogy bookended by a depictions of The 
Mother (partly via Seawrack) in in OBW and Great Scylla in RttW which are much more 
graphic views than anything we get in BotNS (except for giant Tzadkiel's pinching off a 
small version of herself). I think The Mother and Great Scylla highly qualify as 
Lovecraftian leviathan monstrosities and I find their presence to have a behind-the-scenes
impact on the story at least as great as Abaia and Erebus in BotNS.

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